Are Smart Speakers and Streaming Devices Energy Efficient?
The Institute for Energy Efficiency at UCSB is interested in making anything electronic and/or with electronics inside more energy efficient and therefore reducing the carbon footprint of these devices and systems. There are a number of great innovations from the tech industry that have become ubiquitous in our homes and have made our lives easier in many ways. For example, set-top box Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) allow us to time shift our viewing of entertainment content to a time which is more convenient for us and our families. Newer model DVRs and remotes and TVs listen for us to speak commands to them as well. Smart speakers that listen like Amazon Echo (TM), aka "Alexa" and Google Home (TM) devices, help organize our digital lives in many ways. These innovations share the characteristic that they are often "on" so that they can instantly wake to serve our needs. This convenience comes at a societal cost, that is devices that are awake and listening typically require a great deal more power to run in a listening mode than those that are closer to truly off. In addition, in certain circumstances, by connecting multiple of these devices together like a smart speaker and smart TV, it can dramatically increase the energy footprint of one or the other or both.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has been studying these systems and working with the manufacturers and companies that deploy these type of devices in recent years to reduce the power footprint of these "always on or always listening" devices. For example, the NRDC study referenced below revealed that when you link a smart speaker to some of the 2018 model year TVs the NRDC tested, this can cause the TV to use around 20 Watts in standby, instead of its prior 0.5 Watts. This can cause a TV’s annual energy use to double! This could result in an additional $1.3 to $2.5 billion in annual electricity costs. The NRDC reports referenced below discuss the issues and some of the steps the industries have begun to take to make these devices and their industries more energy aware and more energy efficient. Thanks to the NRDC for their work to make us all aware of these issues and to help the industry to take steps to improve their efficiency and societal impact. Thanks to Noah Horowitz of the NRDC for forwarding along the articles.
To read the report, click HERE
To read Noah Horowitz's blog click HERE